Design Evolution Case Study

Comedy Night was an stand-up comedy event hosted and sponsored by the Reach Educational to raise funds and build awareness of the organization. With the comedy event held every ten months to once per year over a three year period, the poster and event marketing had to stay fresh, have the familiarity and build awareness of the brand.

With the goals of building awareness of the event and the organization while staying consistently fresh, the approach taken was to evolve the event brand through carrying forward, building-on and evolving the design. This approach ensured the look, feel, and style stayed fresh and stayed consistent from the first design to the latest.


With the set goals of establishing a presence and building awareness while staying fresh, the design needed to have a consistency to achieve the goals. That execution was based on carrying forward visual elements and building on them, ensuring they were present in each new poster, without being the same elements or being stale.

With the approach established from the start, the execution is based on carrying forward core elements within the design, including color, typography, and graphic elements, and carrying forward the style, feel, and tone. With each new effort the approach and core design elements are incorporated into the next effort, and consistently present in all efforts. In the poster design, event marketing, and event materials, these elements were core elements that visually tied all materials together, then carried into the next event design.


Starting from the first poster to the third, the color palette was carried forward and build-on, with the core colors working to continue the tone set in the original poster. An element that uses a large amount of visual real estate, the name graphic “Comedy Night” was treated as a core graphic element both visually and as a core brand element. In each new poster design, the Comedy Night graphic was evolved using typography and relevant graphic elements, carrying forward and building-on that graphic from the previous event. In an ongoing approach, newly designed graphics were incorporated, and others graphics were carried forward and build on. The typefaces were carried forward and applied strategically.

In addition to the colors, typography, and primary graphic elements being carried forward, additionally used graphic elements were also carried forward, refined, built-on, and added-to. In some cases these past graphic elements with minor presence became elements of the new Comedy Night graphic. With the graphics and typefaces carried forward, visual lockups and layout elements were also part of the approach and evolution. Event information, arrangement of performer names, organization logo, and event details were all consistent as possible in all posters and creative, with the consistency anchoring the creative and event brand.


With the poster designed, materials for marketing and the event were developed using elements from the poster and building on those elements within new creative to create the materials. In addition to the colors, typography, and the Comedy Night graphic carried in from the poster, elements were pulled from graphics to create new graphic elements. These elements were then used to develop creative for the marketing and event materials.


When a brand is established, the use of the logo is sometimes enough for an immediate connection and that use of the logo builds credibility and interest. Because the event and organization brand was not an established brand, equity needed to be quickly established while continually conveying a new event. The approach of incorporating and building-on elements allowed a look and feel to be established that helped create and build on the event's equity. The approach enabled new creative to be developed that carried forward the equity and ensured it communicated a new event.